With the increasing use of refillable containers, there is an expanding need in the soft drink industry for means of sorting bottles which are returned, so that the correct product goes into the proper bottle. At the present time, despite attempts to automate sorting in the past, sorting remains a manual operation at the bottling plant. Direct cost reduction to the bottler is possible by automating the sorting process. Examples of earlier patent art which have dealt with this problem in some form are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,089,594, 3,228,520, 3,248,845, 3,257,897, 3,265,901, 3,351,198, 3,358,552, 3,529,169, 3,589,513, 3,955,179, 3,956,629 and 4,047,000.